World News Quick Take

Agencies

Wed, Sep 11, 2013 - Page 7

CHINA

Bin Bin getting bionic eyes

A six-year-old Chinese boy whose eyes were gouged out by an attacker is receiving implants at a hospital in Shenzhen after a Hong Kong eye doctor volunteered his service. The implants are a precursor to fitting Guo Bin (郭斌), known as Bin Bin, with prosthetic eyes that will look and move more like normal eyes, but which do not restore vision. A personal assistant to Dr Dennis Lam (林順潮) said the surgery started yesterday afternoon at Lam’s private hospital. Police in the boy’s home province of Shanxi say they suspect his aunt gouged out his eyes, but have not identified a motive for last month’s attack. The woman has since committed suicide.

AUSTRALIA

Drunk pig goes on rampage

A rampage by a feral pig that consumed 18 beers has prompted warnings for people at campsites to properly secure their food and alcohol. The pig struck at the DeGrey River rest area, east of the remote Western Australian town of Port Hedland in the Pilbara, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp The animal was seen stealing three six-packs of beer from campers before ransacking rubbish bags for food. One camper reported seeing the pig guzzling the beer before getting involved in an altercation with a cow.” In the middle of the night these people camping opposite us heard a noise, so they got their torch out and shone it on the pig and there he was, scrunching away at their cans,” the visitor said. “Then he went and raided all the rubbish bags. There were some other people camped right on the river and they saw him being chased around their vehicle by a cow.” The pig was reportedly last seen resting under a tree, possibly nursing a hangover.

THAILAND

Bombs hit school, two dead

A twin bomb blast struck a school in the insurgency-plagued south yesterday, officials said, killing two soldiers and injuring one student in a new setback to peace efforts. Education workers and the troops who guard them are a top target for Muslim militants, who have waged a nine-year-old campaign of violence that has left thousands of people dead. Authorities said that militants behind the attack planted a first bomb to lure soldiers and then detonated a second device after they arrived at the scene. “Two soldiers died and a male student and one soldier were injured,” army spokesman Colonel Pramote Promin said by telephone, accusing the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) rebel group of orchestrating the attack. “It’s the work of the BRN, which is obsessed with violence,” he said.

CHINA

Principal denies link to blast

The headmaster of a primary school that was hit by a blast on Monday that saw two people killed and 44 injured, denied that the incident was the result of a feud involving him, media said yesterday. Many children were among those hurt in the blast, which happened when a man rode a motorcycle past the school in Guilin as they arrived for classes. The cause of the explosion was not clear, but early reports suggested the motorcycle caught fire before a “loud bang” was heard. “Some media said the cause of the explosion could be somebody being involved with a feud with the school principal, who took his retaliation to extremes,” said the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. “Yesterday, the principal, Qin Zhuanhong, denied the claim, saying he had very few enemies and he does not know the blast site tricycle driver.” Guilin officials also said the reports were “simply rumors.”

UNITED STATES

Mom guilty of homicide

An adoptive mother accused of starving her 13-year-old Ethiopian-born daughter and locking her outside in the cold, where she died from exposure, was found guilty of homicide on Monday in Washington state. The mother, Carri Williams, was convicted of homicide by abuse and of manslaughter, while the father, Larry Williams, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter, a representative of the Skagit County Prosecutor’s Office said. Investigators say the girl, Hana, endured beatings and starvation, was forced to sleep outside and had lost a significant amount of weight since her adoption. Prosecutors said her 10-year-old brother, also adopted from Ethiopia, was similarly mistreated.

NETHERLANDS

Authentic Van Gogh found

The Van Gogh Museum says it has identified a long-lost Vincent van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic, the first full-size canvas by the Dutch master discovered since 1928. Sunset at Montmajour depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh’s familiar thick brush strokes. Museum experts said on Monday the painting was authenticated by letters, style and the physical materials used, and they had traced its history. The museum said the painting belongs to an unidentified private collector and will be on display from Sept. 24.

FRANCE

Man killed by elephant

An 84-year-old man was killed near Paris when an elephant belonging to a local circus escaped from its pen and hit him with its trunk, police said on Monday. The elephant performed as usual on Sunday afternoon in Lizy-sur-Ourcq — about 50km from Paris — and was then taken back to its open-air enclosure. Witnesses described how the elephant had grabbed a tarpaulin and placed it over the electric fence surrounding its pen, before breaking through barriers and trailers and striking the man with his trunk. The unidentified man was taken to hospital, but died from his injuries overnight on Sunday.

CANADA

Irate blogger calls 911

A movie blogger irate about cellphone usage during a Toronto International Film Festival screening called 911 to report the offense. At a midnight screening on Monday, FirstShowing.net blogger Alex Billington became increasingly annoyed by constant texting and e-mailing at a screening for press and film industry members. After first complaining to theater managers, Billington took the extreme step of dialing the police. He said the emergency dispatcher laughed at his complaint, so he took to Twitter to vent his anger. He claimed to be concerned that the film, The Sacrament, was being pirated, and that “drastic measures” were called for in restoring moviegoing etiquette.

GUATEMALA

Bus crash kills 43

A bus carrying scores of passengers plunged off a steep cliff on Monday, killing at least 43 people — including newborn babies — and injuring 40, officials said. President Otto Perez declared three days of official mourning for the tragedy. The red bus fell 100m down the canyon, crashing next to a river in the municipality of San Martin Jilotepeque, 64km west of Guatemala City. Rescue workers installed cables between the banks of the river to move the bodies on stretchers above the water, their grim task becoming more difficult as it started raining. The government said in a statement the cause of the accident was not immediately known.